


A Period of Art A Lot of Us Are Familiar With, Including Cosette

by BirdieDell



Category: Les Misérables - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Getting Together, I don't know why I wrote this, There should be more fics about periods, is that a thing?, periodfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-10
Updated: 2017-10-10
Packaged: 2019-01-15 12:12:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 840
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12320844
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BirdieDell/pseuds/BirdieDell
Summary: Now?  Seriously?  Right in the middle of a lecture hall?  Why not once she was at back in her dorm room, with a whole box of tampons sitting conveniently on her desk?





	A Period of Art A Lot of Us Are Familiar With, Including Cosette

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to my beta WahtaOwl who corrected my spelling of Cosette throughout this entire thing and put up with it.

Cosette was in her Freshman Art History Seminar “Paris in the 19th Century” when she felt a growing dull ache in her lower stomach. 

At first she tried to ignore it, focusing instead on the works of Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres which were being projected on the screen at the front of the room. Ladies in full dresses and demure expressions, as well as several images of the Virgin Mary, sailed by as the instructor droned on about the Neoclassical movement and the waxing and waning popularity of this particular French artist. 

The dull ache became just ever so slightly more pronounced, just enough to cause Cosette to groan in irritation. Now? Seriously? Right in the middle of a lecture hall? Why not once she was at back in her dorm room, with a whole box of tampons sitting conveniently on her desk?

Then, just as the soft, curvy female form in Ingres's “La Source” flashed onto the screen, Cosette felt the tell-tale wet blossom of her period slide uninvited into her underwear. Well, there was no ignoring it now.

She scooped up her notebook and backpack, hoping that her initial response of ignoring her coming period hadn't resulted in a nice blood stain on the back of her pants for all to see. Ah well, she'd just tie a jacket around her waist, or wear it without shame as she walked back to her dorm. This was, after all, the 21st century and surely folks could just deal with it.

Her college was certainly living up to 21st century standards with its unisex bathrooms and “Knock before entering, please,” signs up on the doors. 

She found an empty one and proceeded to check the damage. Nothing much. It always felt like more than what it was. Still, if possible, she'd rather not have to stuff a wad of toilet paper in her crotch. Not with another 45 minutes of class to go and a lunch with her friends afterward. 

She rifled through her bag and came up with nothing useful. She turned to the toilet paper dispenser and found it empty. Pants around her ankles, she hobbled over to the paper towel dispenser and found it equally lacking. This was just not turning out to be her day at all.

Cosette pulled her pants back up but didn't fasten them, thinking she'd just run down the hallway to the next unisex bathroom, but then decided to dump her bag out on the bathroom floor to go through its contents one more time. 

There just had to be a tampon in there somewhere! And after all, her preferred brand, o.b., were very small, often found wedged between pages of a book or within the spiral of a notebook, falling out at very inconvenient times, such as happened just last week during a meeting with her adviser.

It was in this state, pants unzipped with heaps of papers, chapsticks, notebooks, envelopes and pens (but seemingly no feminine hygiene products) scattered around her, that Marius found Cosette when he whipped open the door with a flourish, ignoring the “Knock before entering, please!” signs and leaping towards the toilet, a little desperately. Hand on his zipper, he commenced to screaming when he realized he wasn't alone.

“Jesus Christ!” yelled Cosette, realizing that in her haste she hadn't locked the door.

“Oh! Oh!” squeaked Marius nervously. “I totally forgot to knock! Oh my goodness! I'm so, SO sorry!” 

“It's okay!” Cosette sighed. “Let me just pick up my stuff and you can have the bathroom. I'm going to have to find another one anyway!”

“Here, let me help,” Marius, ever the awkward gentleman, offered and began stacking up her notebooks and loose papers in a pile. 

“Um...thanks?” said Cosette, gathering up her pens and pencils with one hand, and trying to unobtrusively work her zipper up with the other.

Marius handed Cosette the neatly arranged pile he had collected, and as he did so a neat little tampon fell out of a notebook and onto the floor between them.

“YES!” squealed Cosette as Marius reached down to pick it up.

“Actually, just give me another minute here, okay?” she grinned, taking the tampon from him and holding it up like a prize.

“Of course! Gosh! I'm going now!” Marius said, backing up towards the door, running into the door frame a bit as he made his way into the hallway. 

It would be almost a month later that Cosette would see Marius again, this time in the toiletry aisle of the Campus Store. Without the distraction of being confined in a small bathroom with him with her pants unzipped, she was able to see how cute he actually was in his little plaid shirt and sweater vest, holding a box of Lucky Charms. 

She held up her box of o.b. tampons and waggled her fingers at him in greeting, giving him a little wink and grin for good measure. He grinned back and blushed.

By the end of the semester, they were dating.


End file.
